


I'm Waiting For My Man

by thereweregiants



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blackwatch Era, Brainwashing, M/M, the noncon isn't violent but it's there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 13:41:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17044787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thereweregiants/pseuds/thereweregiants
Summary: Maybe Blackwatch is falling apart, maybe his teammates are leaving one by one. Maybe he's not sure if they're the good guys anymore.But Jesse has this, at least.He has Gabe.Right?





	I'm Waiting For My Man

**Author's Note:**

> so if you look at the tags and start reading and think 'huh this sounds familiar, like a fic posted like two weeks ago...' then yes congrats
> 
> this was the first run at [I Thought I Was Someone Else, Someone Good](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16874775), when I knew I wanted in terms of theme but hadn't thought of the AU aspect. I got about half of it down before changing tacks, but I still had some fondness for this version so I finished it off. they're not really comparable tho, this is pretty quick and dirty
> 
> I've always been interested by multiple takes on the same concept, but it was all kinds of weird to do it to myself. take with a grain of salt, my dudes
> 
> title from the Velvet Underground's [I'm Waiting For the Man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61fy8Y1Ojt4), because everything involved here needs Lou Reed apparently  
> soundtrack to writing was the Velvet Underground & Nico

The cuffs snap close around thin wrists with a loudness that belies their small size. It isn’t particularly quiet in the hallway outside the lab, but every iota of Jesse’s attention is focused on the people before him. One of the guards reads out from a sheet of paper in a toneless voice. “...have been disavowed. You are no longer considered to have ever worked for Overwatch or any of its related organizations or to have had any connection with the UN. Your personal effects will be forwarded to the address listed on your emergency contact form. All benefits…” Jesse tunes out the rest.

He’s never seen Moira looking defeated before. Jesse has seen a hundred of her increasingly odd experiments go wrong, but she always looks at the result (occasionally the smoking debris) with a raised brow and a cocked head and an easy statement of, “Well, let’s see what variable didn’t work out quite as planned.” He’s never seen her like this with her shoulders slumped, bringing her down to something closer to his own height.

“I’m sorry about all of this,” rumbles Gabe from beside him once the guard stops. “Once the research got out… Jack didn’t have a choice. They threw on the idea of you as the source of leaks just so they would have something to tell the public. You know that I don’t think that of you.”

Jesse knows why Moira was brought in, knows about the experiments to try and save Gabe. He doesn’t like her, but strangely enough he almost trusts her at this point.

Moira laughs, and there’s a thread of ugliness in it. She raises her head and meets Gabe’s eyes, and there’s a flash of something in her gaze that’s not exactly sane. “I believe that you think that, Gabriel. And I thank you for your loyalty. Truly, I do.” The guards have finished their recitation, and are pulling her away.

She glances back one last time, catches Jesse’s eye and then Gabe’s. “You’re welcome, by the way. I hope it’s everything you wanted,” she says with a final, not-quite-balanced smirk, before straightening into her usual posture and striding down the hallway fast enough that the guards have to hurry to catch up.

The two men look at each other, exchanging somewhat confused looks. Moira on a good day operated on a different level than them. Moira on a day like today wasn’t worth the effort of trying to figure out. They turn and head back to the situation room, hoping to try and mitigate the damage.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Another mission done. Did it go bad, was it successful? Jesse has a hard time telling, these days. He’s alive, at least. Gabe’s alive, Genji’s alive, they killed the guy they were meant to. He supposes that would be called a success. There’s an apartment building in Sarajevo that’s rubble now, though, and as they were pulling away he saw a couple of kids crowding around their mother, who looked up at the space in the sky where the building should be with tears streaming down her face. The structure was easily eight stories tall - it probably held a hundred families like hers. So was it a success? Maybe they should ask her.

Debrief is over, and Jesse stumbles into his quarters. He’s never more thankful for his status and having his own shower than days like today. Dust and then blood swirls down the drain, but Jesse doesn’t think any of it is his own. He could have a cut somewhere but everything’s sore enough that he can’t really tell.

He tosses back a couple of pills, the good ones saved from his last real big injury, washes them down with whatever’s left over in his flask. He struggles into some sweatpants, does a quick and lazy brush of teeth, and is asleep within minutes.

The pounding on his door wakes him far too short a time later.

Jesse is muzzy with pain and painkillers, flicks on the bedside light so he won’t trip over his boots on the way to the door. He pulls his door open, and isn’t that surprised to see Gabe there. He’s pretty much the only person he could imagine needing something in the dead of night right after a mission. Jesse blearily wonders if he forgot to charge his tablet, maybe he missed a message.

Gabe pushes his way in, prowls around. It’s not with interest in anything Jesse has despite the fact he’s never been here before, it’s more like checking for enemies. “It’s three am, Gabe, I’m not sure what -” Gabe holds up a hand, and Jesse stops talking.

Gabe pulls something out of a pocket, holds it up and presses a button. Jesse winces at the tone that’s just beyond his ability to hear. It’s one of their standard bug-cancelling devices that will give whoever’s listening a nasty bit of noise before shorting the device out. Jesse’s frowning now.

“Gabe, what the hell are you -” once again he’s cut off, but this time by Gabe’s mouth.

This.

This is. New.

Jesse’s brain has stuttered to a stop, but his body knows what to do out of long habit, shifting his hips into the right position _here_ and running a hand up the back of his head to tilt it into position _there_ and oh lord Gabe knows what he’s doing.

He pulls back because Gabe’s mouth is too overwhelming to get any thoughts out around, but now there are lips under his jaw hitting all his sweet spots and hey look, there’s the bed. Jesse is flat on his back but before he can take a breath he’s covered by a heavy body, dense with muscle. Somehow it’s that which brings him back to reality.

Five hours ago they were standing in rubble. Three hours ago they were giving a debrief to Jack and a video camera. And now his commander - his _commander_ , Jesse’s hindbrain cannot emphasize that enough - is sucking a mark into Jesse’s collarbone and sliding a large, capable hand into Jesse’s sweats. What the fuck.

Jesse has always thought Gabe was attractive, even back when he was Commander Reyes and a terrifying figure that offered him the choice of training or what was tantamount to death at the tender age of seventeen. Back then his feelings were more of hero worship, and not a small bit of figuring out that yes, he did like men. And particularly large and muscle-bound ones that ordered him around as it turned out (thank you as well, Jack Morrison). He eventually got to know the man behind the position, and over the years he went from Commander Reyes to Reyes to Gabriel to Gabe. And the feelings...grew.

Gabe kept his own private life very close to his chest. Jesse had never heard of him being with anyone, ever - didn’t even have an inkling as to what his sexuality might be. Genji’s theory was that he and Jack had something, either currently or in the past, and Jesse agreed that it was the most likely possibility. Him or Ana, maybe. Either way, it put Jesse firmly out of the running for ever being something that Gabe would be interested in when those two were around. He was too young, too uneducated, too rough, too...not Strike Commander Morrison and Captain Amari.

But now Gabe is sticking fingers in Jesse’s mouth and now those fingers are trailing back and now oh, that’s a _nice_ feeling. Jesse reaches over, fumbles the drawer of his nightstand open and grabs the sticky bottle of lube, pulling Gabe’s hand off of his hip to press it in. As Gabe wets his fingers Jesse pulls his legs up to give him some room to work.

The prep is fast and brutal, tight muscles giving up their stretch unwillingly. Jesse doesn’t normally bottom, but can’t imagine another possibility when faced with Gabriel Reyes. There’s no hesitation on the push, no adjustment allowed for the intrusion. Gabe starts up a steady, deep rhythm that takes a minute for Jesse to relax into, but then it’s so very, very good. Jesse reaches a blind hand out and finds the lube bottle, using it to make the slide of his hand on his own cock smooth.

He comes almost embarrassingly fast, the unfamiliarity of being filled bringing him over the edge quicker than usual. Gabe doesn’t react other than to speed up a bit as Jesse clenches around him. Jesse can feel him twitching inside when he comes, matching the rough breaths that are panted into the crook of his neck.

They lay there for thirty seconds, now a minute, as breaths slow and the come on Jesse’s chest starts to cool. Gabe abruptly gets up, wipes his chest and cock off on the edge of Jesse’s sheet. He pulls up his pants and turns away without a word, the sound of the shutting door coming ten seconds later.

Jesse lays there with his boss’s semen seeping out of his ass and wonders what the hell just happened.

-x-x-x-x-x-

It’s never acknowledged, of course. That would be too easy.

The next day Jesse reports like usual to their 0700 morning meeting, and when he grimaces as he sits Genji gives him a sympathetic glance. “Still sore? I think a whole wall came down on you at the end there.”

“Yeah. Something like that.” Gabe doesn’t react at all, but that’s hardly outside of normal. Gabe reacts when plans go badly, when people fuck up, when orders aren’t listened to. Outside of that he rolls with everything thrown his way with barely a flicked eyelash.

Jesse heals, they have a quick mission to the Galapagos to pick up a misdirected package, and the night they get back Gabe shows up again and blows him against his closet door.

He’d still been in the shower, and when he stumbled out to answer the door he still had traces of shampoo in his hair and water running down into the towel he hastily wrapped around his waist. Gabe had set a firm hand to his chest and pushed him into the room - thank god for automatically-shutting doors because certainly neither of them were thinking about it at the time - and didn’t stop until he had Jesse backed up against the wobbly wooden door.

Gabe had sank to his feet and pulled the towel down as he went. Jesse had gotten so hard at the initial feel of Gabe relentlessly pushing him into the room that he nearly came just from the towel’s movement alone. He was then enveloped in a hot, wet mouth, with perfect pressure and swipes of a tongue along the underside, just along the vein. A tentative hand to Gabe’s head got a warning scrape of teeth, so Jesse had just braced himself on the door, fingers flexing at the movement of Gabe’s throat. Because yes, of course the great Gabriel Reyes has no goddamn gag reflex and can take him down to his root as easily as gulping down coffee.

Jesse had come with his head thudding painfully against the door behind him as Gabe swallowed down everything he could wring out of him. Gabe’s mouth had stayed around him as he slowly softened, and Jesse looked down in confusion to see Gabe with his eyes closed and hand moving quickly over his own cock, Jesse still in his mouth. He started to get hard again at the sight, but Gabe came just a minute later. Just like the time before, he got up and left as soon as his breathing was under control.

Now Jesse’s laying in bed, half-hard and staring at the ceiling trying to figure out what’s happening. He’s guessing that it’s an adrenaline thing, a kind of life-affirming desperate action because each time has been after a mission. That would make sense for the first time, but the second? Their biggest threat in the Galapagos were the tortoises. No life affirming needed after that. It’s the only explanation he can think of even though he can’t think of anyone needing less life-affirming action than Gabe, so Jesse turns over and tries to sleep. He does his best to ignore the small place behind his breastbone that feels warm with the idea of Gabe coming to him and not anyone else.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. They live by Moscow Rules here in Blackwatch, so when Gabe comes in a week and a half later and fucks Jesse into an incoherent mess against the wall, he almost expects it. There was no mission this time, giving the final lie to his life-affirmation theory - not that it was worth much in the first place. They hadn’t even really seen each other much that day, just lunch with the team and a quick stop by Gabe’s office to pick up files. They’re sorting through options for Moira’s replacement, and it’s slow going.

It happens again three days later, then again two weeks after that. Again. Again.

Gabe acts like nothing has ever happened between them. It’s confusing, but the sex is good enough that Jesse mostly shrugs it off. If that’s what Gabe needs to compartmentalize, to keep it from the messiness of commander-and-subordinate, that’s fine.

It’s fine. Really.

Jesse tried just once to get Gabe to talk about it. It was unbelievably awkward, Gabe looking at him with a blank face like he had no idea what he was talking about as Jesse stammered over words that were so much bigger than their number of letters, like _feel_ and _stay_. It ended with Gabe pulling away from his outstretched hand, and Jack fucking Morrison looking at him with an unreadable expression that turned into pity as Gabe walked away.

He doesn’t try discussing it again, and lets Gabe in without a word the next day to bend him over his desk. He tries to crush down the cursed little feeling in his chest that is making him start to look forward to it, that’s making him start to want it, to want more. To be wanted.

-x-x-x-x-x-

It goes like this:

They both always come. Once.

(There was one time that Jesse came twice, first in his pants because he’d been on mission and hadn’t gotten off in a week, and then again on Gabe’s cock. The second time was good enough he nearly passed out afterwards.)

Jesse always comes first, and once Gabe comes he leaves.

They might kiss a little bit at the start, but rarely once things have gotten going.

Gabe always tops.

They’re quiet. This is more acknowledgement of thin walls than anything else, though..

They don’t talk about it in public.

Gabe doesn’t look Jesse in the eyes

It’s always at night in Jesse’s quarters. Except when it isn’t.

-x-x-x-x-x-

It’s so late that it’s early, and Jesse is getting rid of his adrenaline by shooting human-shaped targets in the most secluded of the training ranges. It was a bad mission, clearly bad this time. The new addition to the team, some nitwit sniper pulled over from Overwatch, fired too early and set the whole plan in action at the wrong time. He was supposed to wait for all four targets to be in the room before taking out the head omnic, but he went ahead at three and left the fourth to rally the troops. Jesse is unharmed but Genji’s confined to medical and the idiot - he really should remember his name at some point - broke a couple of fingers. Jesse can’t really find it in him to care about the latter.

As the last of the echoes fade from firing the clip, Jesse hears footsteps. He turns to find Gabe striding toward him. They’re not in his quarters so Jesse isn’t sure if this is to talk about the mission or - nope, he’s being bent over the bench.

Jesse’s manhandled into straddling the low bench with Gabe behind him, an unforgiving hand on his back pressing him down. Gabe is pulling his pants down but Jesse’s not sure what’s going to happen here because he was fucking training, he doesn’t have any damn lube -

Well, _okay_ , that’s a mouth.

He winces on Gabe’s behalf because although he showered after the mission he’s been in the room sweating hard for a few hours now. It doesn’t seem to stop Gabe, who’s worked his way from a tongue up to two fingers, mouth dancing around his sensitive rim. Jesse looks around from his position, an idea in mind. His ass has gotten far more used to things than that first time, but he’s still not looking forward to taking Gabe’s not-insignificant girth with nothing but spit.

Pushing Gabe’s head away, Jesse scoots up the bench then back, retrieving a bottle of gun oil from where it was waiting to clean Peacekeeper. He shoves it into Gabe’s hand then lowers himself back down. It’s not as good as lube, but there’s at least a relatively smooth slide when Gabe dribbles it in.

Gabe yanks Jesse’s hips up, high enough that he can shove his way in from his kneeling position. The odd angle plus the extra bit of drag from the not-lube makes it unbelievably good, and Jesse has to bite hard on his lip to keep from moaning. They’re in goddamn public and -

Just as that thought goes through his head, Jesse hears something familiar enough that he dismisses it before realizing what it was.

The sound of a shutting door.

Oh god. If someone saw them - oh lord, this could be bad. Not to mention, they’re in a goddamn training range: there are cameras here. What in the world was Gabe thinking, starting things up outside of quarters?

The panic dissolves as Jesse cries out at the unexpected orgasm, biting the sound back too late. It hits him like a sledgehammer, and he doesn’t even realize that Gabe’s come as well until he’s pulling out and leaving Jesse to drip onto the bench. He’s gone in half a minute, leaving Jesse to grumble about cleaning up one’s own messes and looking around to try and figure out where the closest bathroom is.

-x-x-x-x-x-

The next day finds Jesse with Gabe in the Blackwatch War Room, several hours early for the meeting they’re supposed to have with Jack and Ana. Gabe insisted on them meeting here because of shielding from surveillance, and Jesse doesn’t understand why until Gabe lays everything out for him.

The leaks haven’t stopped. The leaks have gotten worse, actually, especially after the shit that went down in London a month ago. There’s practically nothing of Blackwatch left nowadays other than their team, and Jesse is still surprised that Jack hadn’t fired him after being on the ground when they were forbidden any missions. He thinks that Gabe might have done some fast talking - as well he should have, he was the one that ordered him there.

“I never thought that Moira was the source of the leaks,” Jesse says finally.

“Neither did I. It’s too...low level for her.” Gabe says. Jesse knows what he means. Sending little tidbits over the course of years isn’t Moira’s style. She’s an orchestrator, someone who would be directing the whole shebang, not a minion to gather information.

“It has to be someone in Overwatch. The only ones left here are us and Genji, and you know his honor would never let him do shit like this.” A thoughtful pause. “What about whatsisface?”

Gabe raises an eyebrow. “Who?”

“The guy who you added to our team two days ago. The idiot who got us all fucked yesterday.”

“Jones.”

“Yeah, him. He certainly gives me the feeling of ‘low-level idiot’.”

Gabe rolls his eyes. “Jesse -”

He’s cut off by the door slamming open. Jack Morrison is storming in, coat flaring behind him in all his Strike Commander glory.

“Having a good time, gentlemen?” he asks, pure venom in his voice.

Five words, and Jesse now knows who was behind the shutting door last night. He...he might actually die here. He carefully moves his chair back so he can get up and run if needed, and the fact that it moves him away from Gabe and Jack is only a bonus.

Gabe is frowning. “What are you talking about?”

“Last night, Gabriel. Or did you forget about your little adventure in the training room already? It’s only been eight hours or so.”

Jesse can’t stop himself from flinching and Jack doesn’t miss it. “At least _he_ seems to feel some sense of remorse.”

Gabe is standing and walking over to Jack and - oh. Oh no. It is crystal clear that during all those nights together Gabe never felt a damn thing for Jesse, because he’s never seen that soft look on his face, never seen him practically nuzzle into someone’s throat, never heard that tone in his voice when he murmurs _Jackie, I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about -_

Jack shoves at him and Gabe is abruptly thrown into sitting in a chair, staring at Jack in shock and utter confusion. Jesse pushes his own chair back a little more with the idea of maybe going out the side door when Jack’s gaze shifts to him. Jesse, met by the thunderous face of the most powerful man in Overwatch whom he’s now realized he just helped _cheat_ on, panics.

“I swear to god, I never would have done anythin’ if I’d known you were together. I swear. I’m not that person.” He really isn’t. Jesse doesn’t have any problem attracting people, he’s never had to touch those that are already in relationships. He knows some agents that have a person in every port, but that ideology has always left a bad taste in his mouth.

Jack seems to slump a little, like his strings have been cut. “I never thought you were, Jesse. But then I never thought he was either.” That last sentence comes out haltingly, and Jesse never wants to hear the Strike Commander sounding so broken.

“Jesse?” Gabe has turned to him, looking vaguely murderous. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”

Now it’s Jesse’s turn to look confused. “I…” He wants to meet Jack’s eyes and exchange a look of _what the hell, the cat’s out of the bag_ but he knows if he looks at Jack he’s not going to be able to get this out. “You and me, Gabe.”

“What about you and me?”

“What about - are you seriously goin’ to make me say it out loud in front of _him_? I’m not the one that fucked up here!” Jesse gesticulates at Jack with a flailing hand. There is no possible way this could get more awkward.

“The fact that I saw you fucking him in the training room last night, Gabe.” Jack sounds so tired.

“I wasn’t anywhere near the training room last night,” Gabe says flatly. “We got back, I wrote up my own debrief and took them from the rest of the team, then showered and went to bed.”

Jack and Jesse stare at Gabe. “No, not really.” Jack reaches into a pocket, pulls out his tablet and hits a button to sync it to the room’s screen. _Oh god,_ Jesse thinks. _He’s really going to do it._

Sure enough, with a few taps Jack has brought up the surveillance system. Jesse watches a few seconds, just enough to know that he shouldn’t keep watching if he doesn’t want to get incredibly inappropriately turned on. He glances over at Jack, who is staring at the wall next to him. It hurts to see his expression, to know he had anything to do with it. Jesse then looks over to Gabe, and is taken aback by the look on his face. He looks...horrified. Jesse doesn’t think he’s ever seen fear on Gabriel Reyes’s face before, but he thinks he’s seeing it now.

“I don’t remember this. I don’t remember any of it.” Gabe voice sounds like it was put through a blender.

“Sure, Gabe.” Who knew Jack Francis Morrison could sound so sarcastic?

“Fuck you, Jack, I don’t goddamn remember it! I have no memory of anything on the screen there! Last night I went to bed at midnight and woke up at six and have no recollection of that happening in between!” He sounds desperate, and if Jesse’s ass wasn’t still sore he’d believe him.

“What about the other times?” Jack glares over to Jesse, rightfully so. “I’m assuming there were other times.”

Jesse nods, not meeting either of the gazes that he can feel weighing on him. “It’s been going on for a while.”

“How long?” The question is from Gabe, surprisingly. When Jesse doesn’t answer immediately he slams a hand down on the table. “How fucking long, Jesse?”

He shrugs, finally meeting Gabe’s eyes. “You should know, Gabe, you’re the one that started it. After that mission in Sarajevo when that apartment building came down. Once every week or two.”

Jesse can see Gabe mouthing the word _Sarajevo_ to himself and working through it before jerking his head up. “A year? Almost a damn year?”

“How is this news to you?” It’s Jesse’s turn for an outburst, apparently. “You started it, it’s you coming to my quarters every damn time, interruptin’ my sleep so you can get what you came for. You, Gabe. You.”

Gabe’s head is in his hands, and when he raises it his eyes are suspiciously wet. “I don’t know...what to say to either of you. Other than I have no recollection of any of that.”

"Really." Jack, understandably skeptical.

"I don't know how many times I can say it. I don't fucking remember. Not last night," Gabe points at the screen. "And certainly not a year's worth of...that. I wouldn't do that, Jack. I would never. Not if I was in my right mind."

They all sit in silence for a few minutes, thinking their own thoughts.

“What about,” Jack licks his lips audibly. “Sleepwalking? Is that something that...could…” He’s obviously grasping at straws, but it’s not like they have anything else to go on.

“No,” Gabe shakes his head, then stops, staring at a blank space on the wall. “...and yes. It was a side effect I had at one point, from one of the...treatments….” he trails off, and his eyes move to meet Jesse’s.

Jesse clears his throat, mouth bone dry, a horrible idea percolating in his head. He was recruited to Blackwatch for his shooting skills, but he was promoted for his sense of strategy. His brain just made an ugly leap that he doesn’t want to be true. “When we were sitting here talking about the leaks, I was thinkin’ to myself. That you were right, that the leaks were something low-level. That she’s a mastermind. That she would have a bigger plan.”

Jack scoffs. “You can’t sleepwalk through sex. Not for a year.”

Gabe rotates his chair a bit, just enough so that he doesn’t have to see Jack’s face. “This is...crude, but. How was it? How was...I? Did I seem - normal? Like me?”

Jack is glowering somewhere in Jesse and Gabe’s direction, and Jesse is afraid of seeing where he’s actually looking. His eyes settle on the table. “It was always pretty perfunctory. What was on there,” he waves a hand at the screen, “is pretty representative. You’d show up. Fuck me. Leave. Never talked, never kissed much.” He shrugs apologetically, but he’s not quite sure why. When he dares to look up, Gabe and Jack are looking at each other with complicated looks on their faces.

“Tell me if that sounds like me, Jack.” Gabe sounds almost triumphant. “You _know_ what I’m like. You think there isn’t something fishy going on?”

Jack doesn’t answer Gabe, instead looks past him to Jesse. “What were you talking about, with the leaks?”

Darting a look at Gabe, Jesse raises a shoulder. “The leaks continued, even though Moira’s gone. Neither of us ever thought she was behind them, that it would be below her. But this shit? This is up her alley.”

With a bitter laugh, Jack spreads his hands. “Having Gabe be brainwashed into sleeping with you. How exactly is that up her alley?”

Jesse shakes his head. “You never really worked with her, you don’t know how she thinks.” He sits forward. “If it was your goal to destroy Overwatch, you don’t want people to know how you’re doin’ it. You have somethin’ that everyone thinks is the problem. Then you hide something deeper and wait for it to go wrong.”

“Jack.” Gabe looks at him, waits until he meets his eyes. “If we hadn’t been here, the day after you saw. If we didn’t all talk this out, the way we just did. If instead you and I had this out during a meeting, or in the middle of headquarters. How bad could this have been?”

Letting out a deep breath, Jack nods. “The two heads of the organization, having a brawl of a personal nature, and we wouldn’t be able to resolve it without a lot more information. It could tear us all apart.”

Once again they’re all quiet, considering.

“No one say anything to anyone,” Jack says finally. “Gabe, you go see Franklin, he’s the head neurologist down in medical. Explain as much as you can to him without mentioning names and see what he can come up with. We all meet back here at,” he checks his tablet. “1300 and recap tomorrow.”

Jesse all but runs out of the room.

-x-x-x-x-x-

He gets to the War Room the next day three minutes late, because he’d rather get reamed out for that than spend ten seconds alone in the room with either of them. Jack and Gabe are both there, silent. Jesse had always assumed they pretty much lived in each others’ back pockets, but they didn’t seem to be doing so right now.

“I have good news and bad news,” Gabe finally says. “Franklin did some scans. There were some...distinct anomalies, he called them, to my brain patterns. He said he couldn’t get more specific without scans while the incidents were happening, but he was sure that there were in fact incidents. Something about residual scarring. There was also this.” He puts a plastic bag down on the table, and Jack and Jesse lean forward to peer down at the small piece of metal and plastic contained within. “This was in my head, apparently. It transmits, we think, both to and from me. Going to have tech take a look at it, once we figure out who we can trust.”

Jesse looks up. “Moira?”

Gabe nods. “Moira. No one else had access to me like she did. Exactly what damage she did remains to be seen. We’re going to have to go over the entire place - hell, the people, even - with a fine tooth comb to figure out what she did. Franklin wants you and Genji to visit, said that if she messed with anyone else it’d be you two.”

Resigned, Jesse nods. He thinks that she didn’t need to do any more damage than she did, but he’ll go.

“I stopped by tech yesterday as well,” Gabe says. “Didn’t tell them what to look for, but it looks like there are messages sent from my tablet that were deleted afterwards. Once we have that list of trusted people, we can figure out where they were sent to.” All that investigation, and the leak was right there at the top.

Muttering something about Ana, Jack starts typing into his tablet. Gabe tilts his head, turning his chair towards Jesse. “What I don’t get is why you let me, for so long. I sound like an asshole, treating you like that. Why did you let me?”

Jesse shrugs, unable to meet Gabe’s eyes. “Because it was a weird kind of comfort. Because at least someone was touchin’ me that wasn’t tryin’ to kill me.” He tries to look up, gets as high as the zipper on Gabe’s hoodie. “Because it was you.” Jesse wants to crawl into his own chest and curl up into a ball there.

He still can’t look at Gabe’s face, but he can see his hands tighten on the armrests of the chair, the right hand one popping a few stitches in the leather. “Jesse, I’m...I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have,  we wouldn’t -” Jesse dares to look up, and Gabe’s face is drawn inwards, frowning so hard his scars deepen. “I’m with Jack. And have been for a long time. If I wasn’t - I mean, it’s not that it’s never crossed my - I just…”

It the situation wasn’t so horrible Jesse would be amused at hearing Gabriel Reyes stumbling over words for the first time in the fourteen years he’s known him. “It’s okay, Gabe. You’re...you’re the one who was violated here. I’m the last person you should be apologizing to.”

“I know. But I...hell, Jesse, I don’t remember any of it. Kindest violation that could happen, I guess. You do remember. You lived through it. I just...will we be okay? They’re going to lock me in at night so you don’t have to worry about anything, I swear.”

Jesse gives his patented Charming Smile #5, the one that has an edge of wistfulness and a bit of ‘aw shucks’. “Sure, boss. We’re okay. Just let me know when Franklin wants to see me, yeah?”

He pauses. Doesn’t want to say it but has to. “One thing, though. Are you sure I was the only one?’

Jesse’s fairly sure that he can actually see the blood drain from Gabe’s skin, leaving him almost grey. Jack has finished talking to Ana, and his mouth tightens into a thin line. “I don’t know for certain,” Gabe says finally. “But I’m going to guess yes. There isn’t…” he glances at Jack, who looks away with a turn of his head that speaks to an old argument. “There isn’t anyone else who would rip us apart quite so badly.”

Jesse nods hesitantly, and no one stops him when he gets up and leaves. Just outside the door he leans up against the wall, taking deep breaths. He straightens after a minute, gathering himself together.

The large window of the room across from him is blacked out, and it reflects the War Room’s interior like a mirror. Jesse watches as Gabe stands, asks something that Jack answers. He steps forward, and the two slot together like they were originally supposed to be just one form. Gabe’s head rests on Jack’s shoulder, and Jack says something that makes Gabe laugh softly, mouth gently curling up at the edges. As he raises his head and their lips meet, Jesse turns away, something small and empty taking shape inside of him.

He walks down the corridor, alone. He’s fine, it’s all fine. It can all go back to how it was before. Jesse repeats that to himself as the emptiness in his chest grows to fit the space behind his breastbone.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading friendos


End file.
